As I reported earlier, our Hymer ML-T 580 4×4 is equipped with BF Goodrich LT245/75R16 120/116S All Terrain T/A KO2 tires. I have collected information about the tire pressure from several sources and would like to present them here.

On Friday afternoon (June 23rd) we came from the Siegburg area to Hachenburg using the B8 (old Frankfurt road) via Hennef, Uckerath and Altenkirchen, then B413. A nice track with its small villages, shops, cafés and restaurants that invite to stop and stay for a while. In our map below we have marked the route in orange.

When we arrived at the event location, already several participants had arrived. Vehicles of very different kind could be found from the normal road car with camping trailer to 16 ton 4WD expedition trucks with dedicated special cabins. Enjoying the good weather, it was fun to stroll across the parking and talk to the various owners.

On Saturday, the day started with the juggling and balancing event after breakfast – big fun for kids and parents. In the afternoon, it was time for a short excursion by bike to the small but attractive old city center of Hachenburg. Well aligned with the DZG event, the so called Ruanda day took place on the market square with live music and various information booths.

On Sunday morning the weather unfortunately turned worse with rain and colder temperatures. That seems to have caused several event participants to leave a bit earlier than originally planned. At the moment of our departure at about 13:00, the parking had already emptied quite a lot.

For our return trip towards Siegburg (marked in green in our map below), we decided to quickly visit the famous abbey Marienstatt with its attractive buildings and gardens. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time we were unable to stop at the brewery restaurant there, although its menu card was very seducing.

As I reported a while back, we are currently using a mobile router TP-Link TL-MR3020 in the camper to create connections to the Internet using external WLANs (for example on camping sites) or mobile networks.

In case of a weak mobile network signal, we can place an external antenna outside the vehicle. As the router does not have a connection option for an external WLAN antenna, we unfortunately cannot use an antenna, but found an unconventional way to solve the issue.

Together with a small Anker Astro E1 5200mAh power bank as power supply, we place the router in a hermetically closed Emsa kitchen plastic box (cost approx. Eur 4 in Germany) and then place it on the roof of the vehicle (using a small anti slip mat when windy). The power bank can supply the router for more than 40 hours with a single charge.

This trick helped us well over the last couple of weeks. This is for sure no highly professional or long term solution, but one that can be composed simply and cheaply, potentially reusing already present components.

In an earlier post we described how we are trying to transport our bikes in the boot of our Hymer ML-T 580 4×4 using the boot’s lashing rails. So far, we had not found any information about the load limits of those rails. Hymer still has not responded to our e-mail from May 11th 2017 about the limits.

In the meantime though, our Hymer dealer has received a response from Hymer which I can now translate:
„We approve per eyelet a load of 150kg with a minimum distance of 500mm from eyelet to eyelet.“

Day 14 (June 1st 2017) of our May 2017 France road trip: After our morning stroll through the historic center of Briancon we continued our trip towards Mont Blanc via the famous Col du Galibier. Driving northwest from Briancon we passed the nice valley Vallée de la Guisane up to the Col du Lautaret (2058m) and then further up to 2556m. Continuing downhill, via Valloire and Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, we used highways A43/A430 passing Albertville direction Chamonix. On our map below, the day’s track is marked in green.

At the upper part of the Col du Galibier (2556m), the tunnel had to be taken, as the D902B was still closed due to large amounts of snow. The famous Galibier (according to Wikipedia the 9th highest hardened mountain road in Europe) pleased us with great views and scenery driving up- and downhill.